Sunday October 16th

Good afternoon...I hear big winds and storms have been making their way around the West Coast of Canada. Hope your building isn't swaying Dan and Barb and that no trees have blown down on Thetis Island Wayne.

Here it is just white hot. It is mid-afternoon and I have retreated to our stateroom with the drapes drawn...it seems to me to be the hottest and brightest I have experienced for a long time. But then I am not in Arizona in the summer. In the early evening we will be threading the Strait of Hormuz...a very busy international route for cargo ships, tankers, fishing boats, everyone's naval vessels...and us. At the moment as we cruise north west up the Gulf of Oman, being on the port side is not a good thing....sun beating down. My first photo is the map of where we are...
 
 
 
Tuesday October 18th

After two days in Dubai, in an hour we will let go the lines from Terminal 3 in Rashid Harbour, pivot, exit carefully out past the narrow opening in the breakwater and retrace our route back through the Strait of Hormuz. On the starboard side resupplies have been stowed from 10 containers for the past 2 days and on our port side a refuelling tanker was tied up when we left in the morning yesterday until late last night. The ship had a distinct list to the port side last night, but has righted itself today. Not sure what the fuel cost, but I expect the Captain filled to the top...must be one of the cheapest ports for refuelling. At one of our sessions the Captain told us it takes 9 gallons to move the ship its length! Incidentally in Dubai expats pay 40 cents a litre for gas, not sure if locals pay anything.

What to say about Dubai? It is the city of over-the-top for sure. Like all of us we have seen photos of the the tallest building...I remember the fireworks going off from all levels of Burj Khalifa last New Years Eve and photos of the indoor ski hill when it opened. But the sheer size and opulence of all of these landmarks still stunned us. Dubai has more "topped-out skyscrapers than any other city. The Dubai skyline is iconic for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings.


In 36 hours we briefly took in the highlights...we visited the Old Dubai Museum...small but stunning dioramas depicting early life in Dubai, the splendid Jumeirah Mosque and then viewed from the beach the 1,000 ft high Burj Al Arab Hotel which is built in the shape of a towering sail hanging out over the water. We crossed Dubai Creek, a salt water inlet cutting through the city by abra (water taxi) to take on the souks (markets). We left without gold or carpets...despite numerous attempts to drag us into shops. I think we were obviously viewed as walking VISA's.

The second day was the tiring one...it was "mall" day once we had been whisked up to the 125th floor of the tallest building, Burj Khalifa to stare down at Dubai laid out before us. A few hours in the largest mall in the world, the Dubai Mall with over 1,200 shops and seeing the walk through aquarium but skipping the ice rink and the cinemas was enough for me. Bloomingdales has pride of location near the elevators you take up Burj Khalifa. Oh wait, we had one more of the 50 malls in Dubai to stop at..the Emirates Mall, home to Ski Dubai. Interesting, but not Whistler. Mind you it was 30 degrees outside! I was way more exhausted from mall walking than the trek into Petra!

Of course I started wondering how Dubai got to be the Dubai of 2016. Between reading, our guide and walking bits of the city I learned a great deal. In my books, until you visit an area of the world you don't really focus on it...unless of course it is in the news because of a disaster or a war. So feel free to skip the rest and go onto the photos. I always have to know why a place is where it is and how it became what it is today.

As you probably know Dubai is one of 7 Emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I had forgotten the area had been under British protection, meaning Britain took care of foreign policy and defence. Sort of suddenly, on January 16, 1968 Harold Wilson declared all the British troops east of Aden would be withdrawn. Family feuds would have to be dealt with locally...so in 1971 these states joined together to form the UAE. (The short history version)

Dubai had been an important trading centre since the 18th century and seems to have had several far sighted Emirs. In the 1800's when smallpox and a fire wiped out the town the Emir lowered taxes, regained Dubai's trade and persuaded Persian traders to move across the strait from what is now Iran. Until the 1930's Dubai was known for its pearl exports but the Great Depression and the innovation of cultured pearls shut down the industry. A different vision was needed.

Since 1833 Dubai has been ruled by the al Maktoum family. An absolute monarchy; no elections. Sheik Rashid bin Saeed al Maktoum, the ruler from 1948 to 1990 first used trade revenues to build services...electricity, telephone, an airport and a hotel. In 1965, over British objections, he also built an airport to handle jets...so Dubai could handle regional and long haul traffic.

After oil revenues started flowing in 1969 the first project constructed was Port Rashid, where we tied up, a deep water free port. It was an outstanding success. Port Rashid was the first of many projects built to create a modern trading centre and included roads, bridges, schools and hospitals. Because Dubai's oil and gas reserves are limited Sheik Rashid's drive was to build infrastructure and diversify the economy before the reserves ran out.

During the 1970's and 1980's Dubai continued its rapid growth. The 1990 Gulf War and the 2008 USA led recession had negative effects...but depositors, traders, investors and tourists all returned in greater numbers. In 2014 the economy grew by 6%. The surprise for me was that revenue from oil and gas was less than 5%. Real estate, construction, trade, financial services and tourism were larger contributors.

Sheik Rashid bin Saeed al Maktoum died in 1990 and since then his son Sheik Maktoum bin Rashid bin Saeed has been the Monarch. He has continued his father's legacy of diversification and striving to become the international centre of the Middle East.

In 2014 Dubai's main trading partners were China, India, USA and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Dubai's newer Jebel Ali Port is the largest man-made harbour in the world and is ranked 7th globally. The diversification from an oil reliant economy to one of service and tourism has made property values soar. Large scale real estate development has lead to some of the tallest and largest projects in the world...the Emirates Towers, Burj Khalif, the Palm Islands and the Burj Al Arab Hotel. 
 
 
 
Tourism is part of the strategy to maintain a flow of foreign currency to the Emirate. The lure is based mostly on shopping....thus the 50 malls and the 250 gold shops in the Gold Souk. Dubai is the "shopping capital of the Middle East." Our guide told us most UAE nationals spend their lives in air conditioned houses, offices, cars, cinemas and malls. The malls when we were there during the week were not busy, but apparently they are packed on weekends...Fridays and Saturdays. Both the ice rink and Ski Dubai are filled with kids.

To make all this happen, in the last 50 years Dubai has relied on foreign workers. Dubai's population as of 2013 was just over 2.1 million. Only 15% are UAE nationals...the rest are expatriates, or foreigners. About 80% of the expatriate population are Asian (most from India and Pakistan). There are about 250,000 foreign labourers, alleged to live in conditions "less than humane" it was reported in 2009. By far the greatest group of Western expatiates are British (100,000). All expats come in on work visas for 2 or more years in length. Asian workers can come in on a work contract but must return home at the end of it for at least 6 months. Employers are required to provide housing. You must have health insurance.

And what about if you happen to be a UAE national? Well then we were told housing is free, services are free, a car is free, education is free and a job awaits you when you return from getting your overseas degree. Marriage is encouraged between UAE nationals, with incentives like the house in the third to last photo. A UAE national's salary would be double that of an expatriate for the same job. The Emir wants to keep and grow the local population. To assist him in this task he has appointed both a Minister of Happiness and a Minister of Tolerance. Honest I read it!

The consequence...Dubai is like an unreal world...80% work for 20%, the sun always shines and the buildings reach higher, the projects become even larger, life is easy if you obey all the rules. There is no homelessness or poverty...locals are few and are provided for; the rest are only admitted if they have a job contract. And if you kiss in public you can be deported. No trash on the street... an 8,000 dirham fine; cameras everywhere with polite requests to please pay the fine for speeding within x days. Traffic proceeds sedately and within the speed limit, despite there being lots of expensive fast cars. A Naples driver would have a serious breakdown.

A funny piece of trivia reminded me of our license plate from the NWT, the number "3" which meant the Commissioner of the NWT was "1", John Parker, the Deputy Commissioner was "2" and Gary as the Assistant Commissioner got a license plate with a "3". I assume that hierarchy is gone now from the north...or maybe not...just different folks.

Here in Dubai the license plates really DO show who you are...the first 10 being for the Sheik and his family...and so on. What you really want is a license number with your family initial and up to two digits (M-1 to 10 would be terrific)...that shows how wealthy you are...the plates go up for auction each year, are obviously limited in number. Last year one went for $US 8 million (Gary thinks it might have been G-5). So if you have a Ferrari and it has a 5 digit license plate then clearly you have not arrived. Not sure I've been in a country where the car was incidental to the license plate! The car in my photo has a "1" on the plate...maybe that was why all the people were gawking at it...us included.

You have to give Dubai and the Sheik credit for their vision of diversification...but there is this fascination with blending past and present with big, bigger and biggest. There is the Jumeirah Mosque, only 35 years old which is splendidly baroque, with soaring minarets framing a large central dome...the building large enough to hold up to 1,200. My photos don't do it justice...it is gorgeous.

And then for bling the Burj Al Arab Hotel (1,053 ft high or about double the height of the Wall Centre in Vancouver) is perched on a man-made island, it's huge sail shaped design is to give the illusion of a giant ship ready to cruise off. Apparently it's interior is filled with marble and gold leaf. It looks small in my photo...but trust me it's not and it can be seen from miles away.

The 2,722 foot high Burj Khalifa is the tallest skyscraper (has the most floors in a building (163), as well as the highest restaurant (on the 122nd floor) and the world's highest nightclub (on its 144th floor). So let's just say it has the records clearly beaten. To build it of course it needed the most of this and the largest of something else.

And as we know Dubai has the largest mall in the world...The Dubai Mall. Around it is the largest fountain which is the most powerful and biggest automated fountain in the world. It can shoot water 426 feet high!

I didn't get to it in 36 hours but Palm Jumeirah, measuring 2 miles by 2 miles, is the world's largest artificial island and can be seen from space!

Time to sail away from Dubai. It is fascinating, but all quite a bit too much. Wonderful to spend 36 hours gaping with awe and wonder. Not necessarily a place built for ordinary people to spend their lives. Felt a bit like I was Alice with the buildings keeping growing taller on me,

Back to Sea Days...and for John or Val to let me know how close I have come in my impression of Dubai since they lived for 5 years in the UAE and have fact based real life experience of the region. And I know Lisa...I would flunk your course...many of these facts about Dubai are plagiarized...so just think of me as your mother-in-law and keep mum!

Goodnight or good morning...we are now 12 hours ahead of Vancouver...so both are correct!

Doreen